jvs -
Thanks - the info on the Rugers is new to me and I'll check to see if the twist rate on my 1984 rifle is the same as what is currently listed (1-10).
I'm going to respectfully disagree about premium bullets and using different bullets for target and hunting. My experience with standard cup and core bullets has been disappointing. The first elk I took fell to a 7mm Rem Mag and a 162g Hornady BTSP Interlock. The bullet impacted at a velocity of around 2700-2750fps, hit a rib dead center and came to rest under the hide on the off side. The elk dropped at the shot. After recovering the bullet it was found to have retained well under half its original weight, even though the challenge to its integrity was pretty minimal. The following year I switched to a 160g Grand Slams (this was back in the 80's when they had a harder rear core and a softer front core). It was 20 years before I recovered another bullet. That one took out both shoulder joints of a 5x5 bull elk, a severe challenge to the bullet's integrity. The bull dropped instantly and again the bullet was recovered under the hide on the off side. The Grand Slam had retained 70% of its original weight, more than 200% more weight than the Hornady BTSP had retained those many years earlier.
In my opinion the first elk died in spite of the fact that the bullet had failed. What would have happened if the shot had been quartering away instead of broadside? Or if I misplaced the first shot and had to take a Texas Heart Shot at a wounded animal intent on putting miles between it and myself? That first experience convinced me that premium bullets are worth every penny when the target is large.
Although premium bullets are indeed more expensive, the cost is not that great in the grand scheme of things. My F250 diesel is pretty much a dedicated hunting truck, based on the purpose of the miles I drive in it. License plates, inspections, insurance, oil changes and minor maintenance are all pretty much hunting expenses and add up to hundreds of dollars each year. Some years those hundreds turn into much more due to the need for new tires or major repairs. Even though I hunt Colorado as a resident and only pay $50 for my elk license, the food and fuel and miscellaneous expenses add up as well. If I average the total costs over the last several years I am easily spending at least $1500 every year. Spending extra for premium bullets doesn't cause me any heartburn. I once calculated that if I started shooting Partitions at $0.50 each instead of my preferred North Fork bullets at $1.00 each, after several years I would save enough to have a glass of cheap wine with my dinner. Or retire 10 seconds earlier.
Granted, one must practice with the bullets they hunt with, so the monetary savings are greater than indicated in the previous paragraph. In fact, I tend to shoot a lot and spend several hundred dollars each year working up loads and practicing with premium bullets. But the fact remains that I spend no more for my ultra-premium handloads than many people pay for cup-and-core factory loads. If nothing else, the premiums give me piece of mind when taking a shot - confidence that any failure will be due to a failure on my part and not a failure by the bullet. Last year my hunting buddy Dave and I hunted Three Forks Ranch under Colorado's Ranching For Wildlife program. The ranch provided us with a free guide whose clients had taken 11 elk out in the previous week. Of those 11 elk, only 2 had fallen to a single shot. Dave and I both dropped our elk with a single shot each, doubling the total of one-shot kills to 4. Dave was shooting Trophy Bonded and I was shooting a North Fork bullet.
What about practice? I shoot a variety of rifles from .22-250 to .45-70. The .22-250 gets a pretty steady diet of a single load but the others get a variety. The .30-30 spends the summer zeroed for a 2500fps 130g bullet then gets rezeroed in the fall for a 2160fps 170g bullet that shoots to a considerably lower point of impact. The .257 Roberts spends most of its time zeroed for a 3600fps 75g V-MAX but gets rezeroed for a sub-3000fps 115g TSX and 120g A-Frame. The 7mm Rem mag shoots North Forks extremely well but I have a supply of Grand Slams that I use for most of my practice. The other rifles have similar stories. Quite often I will develop target loads that mimic my hunting loads in terms of trajectory and point of impact.
The important thing, in my opinion, is to be competent with the rifle and load being used. Some folks obtain this competence by shooting the same rifle and load over and over, others obtain it by shooting lots of rifles and loads throughout the year and practicing with a specific rifle and load just before hunting season. Last year I took my .300 Win Mag to the range on a frequent basis, shooting a variety of loads during the summer. A month or so before hunting season I began to focus on the actual hunting load. The last trip to the range found us shooting at ranges from 200 yards to 600 yards. When I took my elk at 260 yards it was pretty much a chip shot.
(See
http://www.coyote-hunter.blogspot.com/ )
The .30-06 will be no different than my other rifles in tems of bullet selection. It will get 168g A-MAX for the long range clay pigeons and probably get 165-168g North Fork and TSX/MRX for hunting. During the year most of the shooting will be at 200 and 300 with an occasional trip back to 500 and 600.
(FWIW, the .30-06 is the second rifle in my collection that has a very specific non-hunting application. As a member of the NRA Whittington Center shooting range I can take advantage of the steel silhouette range, where magnums are not allowed. The .308 Win and .30-06 were both purchased with this range - and the 500-meter rams in particular - in mind. Fun!)
Thanks again for the info about the ruger twist rates. The manuals will indeed tell me a lot about potential velocity, but usually little about actual accuracy. As to the question of premium bullets, we'll probably never agree.
